WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Stranger Things Dungeons & Dragons #2 by Jody Houser, Jim Zub, Diego Galindo, Msassyk, and Nate Piekos, on sale now.
Stranger Things: Dungeons & Dragons has mostly dealt with the exploits of the boys and how much the board game has meant to them in their formative years in Hawkins, Indiana. It shows how it brought them together in a pseudo-origin story, especially with Dustin coming in as the math wiz, which adds some depth to their obsession with it seen over three seasons.
However, Issue #2 sheds some light on Nancy Wheeler, and this time, it reveals how the Upside Down scarred her in unimaginable ways.
Nancy, Mike's sister, struggled to cope in Season 2 but she did have the likes of Steve and Will's brother, Jonathan, to distract her. It shows just how badly she was affected as Mike actually spills the beans when Will gets out from the hospital after Season 1 ended. They're all shaken up from fighting the Demogorgon, but Will's especially tormented as he spent a lot of time in the dark realm. He finds it hard to accept the real world again, even with Mike visiting after the Byers household was rocked.
Will admits he has dreams about it, well, nightmares, but Mike confesses Nancy does too. And she was only there for a few seconds so he knows that Will must be in immense pain. Nancy's trip occurred in Season 1 when she was looking for Barb, feeling guilty she shooed her friend away only to get abducted. Nancy would enter the forest and go through a portal in a tree with the Demogorgon hunting her down too. Jonathan, luckily, was present to pull her over, but all of this gave her PTSD, which we'd learn more of in subsequent seasons. The scary thing is, for Mike to notice, it must have been pretty bad.
That said, as Mike tries to come up with a D&D story for Will to kill the beast and get a confidence boost, he's also bogged down by sadness. Nancy, ironically, comes down to the basement to comfort him and makes it clear, Mike and Will have Lucas and Dustin. They're not alone and they shouldn't take this for granted. She actually wishes she had friends like that and at this point, it's clear she harbors feelings for Jonathan more than Steve. It's nice to see her warming up to the boys as she's usually annoyed by the gang, but at the same time, it's tough to know the teen is going through the motions and feeling alone on the inside.
Again, a lot of this has to do with her rock, Barb, going missing and it's actually the pressure of knowing Barb's dead and having to cover it up that's getting to Nancy. As Mike said, she's cracking so it's easy to feel for her because she never meant for the tragedy to occur with her best friend.
This is what would ultimately push her to Jonathan as he seemed to have a better grasp on the encroaching darkness than Steve and as the story ends, we see the Mind Flayer hovering over Will. It foreshadows the war to come in Season 2 with the boys, which would rope Nancy in again and have her relive the evil, but in the real world this time.